


Dragon Age: Raiders of the Waking Sea - Treasure Hunt

by Berserker79



Series: Dragon Age: Raiders of the Waking Sea [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Pirates, Post-Canon, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 01:02:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12048063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Berserker79/pseuds/Berserker79
Summary: Captain Fernando Silva da Rialto is one of the feared Raiders of the Waking Sea, the piratical organization plaguing the numerous seas and coasts of Thedas. In this adventure, Fernando and the crew of his ship The Frenzied Buzzard are about to set off on a treasure hunt with an old acquaintance.





	Dragon Age: Raiders of the Waking Sea - Treasure Hunt

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set after the events of the Dragon Age Inquisition: Trespasser DLC.  
> This is not a Warden, Hawke or Inquisitor story.  
> All original characters and names from “Dragon Age: Raiders of the Waking Sea” are the property of Berserker79.  
> All characters, story and names taken from the video game series, Dragon Age, are the property of BioWare and EA Games.

_Chapter's notes are at the bottom._

* * * *

The sun was setting on the Amaranthine Ocean, casting a reddish glow on the pirate ship _Frenzied Buzzard_. Taking advantage of the last few hours of sunshine, the ship glided smoothly on the ocean’s cool waters, en route to its current destination, with only a handful of the crew on deck. The ship’s captain, Fernando Silva da Rialto, had ordered most of his raiders to get below deck and have some rest before the ship finally dropped anchor at Estwatch, the notoriously lawless port serving as one of the main base of operations for the Felicisima Armada.

The island of Estwatch stood off the coast of the Free Marcher city-state of Hercinia, south of Llomerryn, probably the most notorious port city in Rivain. Regarded as “disputed territory” by many nations of Thedas, Estwatch’s strategic position made the island a prime target for attempts to claim it by, among others, Kirkwall, Starkhaven and Hercinia. None of those attempts was met with success, leaving Estwatch unoccupied until it was finally taken over by the Felicisima Armada, a loose confederation of ships and piratical raiders plaguing the seas of Thedas from the southern waters of the Waking Sea as far north as the Boeric Ocean.

Unsurprisingly, Estwatch was a haven for pirates, marauders and generally all sorts of criminals with means to set sail for the island. At the same time, Estwatch had grown to become a trading hub and meeting spot for the ships of the Armada, providing a perfect place for the raiders to trade among themselves and indulge in their generally shady business with an even higher degree of freedom than that they already enjoyed at the politically neutral port of Llomerryn. Ominously, the island had also grown a reputation as the place where many disputes among different members of the Armada were settled, generally in some bloody fashion. It was common knowledge among raider crews that a visit to Estwatch could easily end with a knife firmly planted in your back or a duel to the death.

Estwatch’s deadly reputation was the reason behind Captain Fernando’s decision to let most of his crew rest: everyone had to be alert and ready for trouble during their stay on the island.

The _Frenzied Buzzard_ ’s lookout, a nineteenth-year old boy who had been mercilessly nicknamed “Kid” by the more seasoned members of the crew, shouted a warning upon finally catching sight of Estwatch’s coast. At the ship’s helm, Captain Fernando acknowledge Kid’s sighting, estimating that if the wind kept up it would take no more than an hour for the _Frenzied Buzzard_ to reach Little Llomerryn, the nominal capital of Estwatch.

While the Felicisima Armada numbered several more notable figures among its ranks, Fernando had been one of the Raiders of the Waking Sea, the more common name given to the Armada, for more than a decade by now and he had established for himself a certain reputation among his peers, who regarded him as a daring pirate albeit a bit of a show-off. A man of average build in his late thirties, Fernando had a slightly tanned face framed by short cropped raven hair and dark brown eyes. He sported a short, black stubble covering his cheeks and chin, but had grown a soul patch that, as per Fernando’s own words, served to improve his “picaresque looks”.

With their destination finally in sight, Fernando considered that once the _Frenzied Buzzard_ arrived at the port his first order of business was to offload the cargo of spice which he had deftly snatched from a Rivaini merchant ship the day before. The foolish merchant thought his ship could sail safely to the Free Marches without paying a tax to the Armada, a mistake that led to a “transfer of ownership” of the precious spice from the merchant’s possession directly to the _Frenzied Buzzard_ ’s holds. Fernando’s contacts in Little Llomerryn would ensure the spice garnered him a decent sum of money on the black market, possibly enough to sustain Fernando’s raider operations for the next couple of months and at the same time grant a fair share of the profit to the crew of the _Frenzied Buzzard_. Once the spice was offloaded, the next items on Fernando’s agenda were to replenish the ship’s supplies – something that Moreno, the ship’s first mate, would handle for him – and visiting _The Crippled Buccaneer_ tavern for some well-deserved drinking.

The arrival of the _Frenzied Buzzard_ at Little Llomerryn shortly after the sunset did not attract any interest. Indeed, it was entirely common for raider ships to arrive and depart from Estwatch at any hour of the day. No one paid attention to Fernando’s landing party descending from the _Frenzied Buzzard_ , nor were the members of the group bothered by anyone as they made their way to the warehouse owned by one of Fernando’s contacts. After an unexpectedly prolonged bargaining to sell the spice at the best possible price, Fernando’s first mate took some of the ship’s crew with him to stock up on supplies, while Fernando and the rest of the crew headed for the tavern.

Along the way to _The Crippled Buccaneer_ , Fernando and his group crossed what passed for Little Llomerryn’s main square, stopping by the message board to check the rumpled notes pinned to the musty board. As he went through the messages, Fernando idly noticed that maintenance of the board had not improved since his last visit.

The wood the board was made of had the usual moth-eaten look and it was still covered in bird droppings. Fernando was inclined to believe that the damn seagulls must have taken a liking to soiling the board, so much that he wished that whatever had caused a nose dive of the pigeon population in Ferelden might soon start affecting also the seagulls of Estwatch.

Of course, maintenance of the message board had a very low priority for the Armada, regardless that it served a useful purpose, at least for those raiders who could read and write. Basically, the idea behind the board was that raiders in need to contact one of their peers would leave a message there and wait to hear back from the intended recipient, either directly or by way of another message pinned to the board.

Due to a small number of incidents where a raider managed to figure out an opponent’s whereabouts by reading the messages on the board and then use the information to his or her advantage, nowadays it was a tradition for all members of the Armada to leave only unsigned messages, with no clear identification of the recipients. All messages were written in as cryptic a manner as possible, in order to ensure that only the intended recipient could possibly understand who left the message and what the message actually said. In any event, ensuring that the author and the recipient were not easily identifiable was generally enough to discourage unrelated third parties to spend time trying to decipher the messages.

Fernando had never really used the board to contact someone, but he had developed a habit of taking a look at the pinned messages whenever his ship dropped anchor at Estwatch. Much to his surprise, the pirate captain realized that his habit had just paid off: one of the messages pinned to the board was actually meant for him. The short text scrawled on the piece of paper read as follows:

“ _Hey Quicksilver  
Come alone… not like that!_ ”

As expected, the message had no signature, but its author had sketched rough drawings of a bridge bearing a suspicious resemblance to a pair of female breasts and what looked like a mask followed by the number 3.

From the text of the message, Fernando could tell that he was the intended recipient and at the same time identify the author that left the message pinned to the board. Indeed, there was only one person calling him “Quicksilver” and prone to rely on a stupid, dirty joke using the word “come” to set up a meeting. And the drawings, looking like some kind of signature to an unwary reader, actually indicated that the meeting was planned to take place at a location identified by the breasts-shaped bridge at a time identified by the mask symbol and the number 3.

Taken together, the message and the drawings were an invitation for Fernando to show up on the third day of the celebrations for Satinalia – the Thedosian holiday accompanied by wild celebrations involving the wearing of masks – in Rialto, specifically at the city brothel overlooking the bridge that was commonly known as “Bridge of the Tits”1.

The bridge owed its name to the customary practice adopted by the brothel’s female workers of displaying their breasts from the windows of the establishment to entice the passers-by. The peculiar practice that had made the brothel one of the best known and busiest in all of Rialto.

The author of the message, and the person Fernando was supposed to meet there, could be none other than the Queen of the Eastern Seas herself, Isabela. The dark skinned pirate woman from Rivain loved dirty jokes and she was the only one using the “Quicksilver” handle, after she bestowed the name on Fernando during their short time together. Furthermore, Isabela’s knowledge of brothels throughout Thedas was legendary among the Raiders of the Waking Sea and the brothel at the Bridge of the Tits was the place of Isabela and Fernando’s first meeting, at a time when both their ships were docked in Rialto and the two captains were visiting the brothel to arrange with the proprietor for their respective crews to spend a night at the establishment.

Fernando had no idea why Isabela wanted to see him. They had parted ways a few years before the Fifth Blight and did not have any further interactions since then. According to rumors Fernando had heard during a previous visit to Estwatch, Isabela had lost her ship, the _Siren’s Call_ , and all her crew not long after the Hero of Ferelden slew the Archdemon in 9:31 Dragon. Many in the Felicisima Armada assumed that was the last they had heard of Isabela, but the woman proved to be more resilient and resourceful than expected, managing to commandeer a new ship with a new crew. She was now one of most notorious Raiders of the Waking Sea, up to the point that she had begun styling herself as an “admiral” of the Armada.

Running a quick calculation in his mind, Fernando realized he had sufficient time to carry out his business on Estwatch and then set sail for Rialto for the meeting. Like all other notable members of the Felicisima Armada, Fernando was officially a wanted felon, but the authorities of Antiva, Rivain and the Free Marches rarely bothered to capture anyone in league with the Armada for fear of repercussions. The Raiders of the Waking Sea were a recognized naval power and the rulers of the nations close to the pirates’ area of operation were keen to avoid drawing the pirates’ ire on their merchant fleets, thus turning a blind eye on the activities of the Armada, unless it happened that a raider ship was caught by a patrol frigate in the midst of boarding or plundering merchant vessels.

As a result, Fernando could visit his home city of Rialto without fear of the authorities. Indeed, the Rialto city guard never bothered him and would not attempt to arrest him during his stay in the city, provided he did not actively cause trouble. In any case, the wild celebrations for Satinalia meant he had a perfect cover to meet Isabela without worrying too much of being identified either by the city guard or by any of his adversaries who might be in Rialto at that same time. Without doubt, Isabela had purposely chosen that specific time and place for the meeting, in order to safeguard herself from the same risks.

Fernando was still pondering the implications of that message when he became aware that his men were growing restless for the night of drinking they had been promised. Leaving the message board behind, the pirate captain led his party to the _Crippled Buccaneer_ and, once inside the tavern, any further thoughts about the upcoming meeting with Isabela were momentarily forgotten, his mind concentrating on what drink should mark the start of the drinking night.

* * * *

A few days later, the _Frenzied Buzzard_ dropped anchor in a well-sheltered cove not too far from Rialto. It was true that Rialto’s guardsmen were not a threat to Fernando and his crew, but he had no desire to disembark at the city’s port. Like all other coastal cities in Antiva, the port authority in Rialto was bound to inspect incoming vessels in an attempt to locate contraband cargo and would charge a fee for docking. Fernando had no desire to pay any tax, nor to let anyone poke around his ship.

“Think you can trust her?” the first mate Moreno asked to his captain, while Fernando was readying himself to take a boat to the shore.

Fernando had gone over the same question during the time it took the _Frenzied Buzzard_ to sail towards Rialto. “Not really. Relying on a ruse like this to set up a trap isn’t beyond Isabela,” he replied while turning to look at his second in command, “But it’s been years since we parted ways and if she really was determined to get even, I don’t think she would have waited this long for her revenge.”

Moreno hadn’t been privy to the more intimate details of the relationship Fernando had shared with Isabela during their brief association several years earlier. That made it difficult for him to gauge the risks involved with meeting Isabela, but his role as Fernando’s second in command meant he had to come up with suggestions for his captain in situations like this.

“I think you should take more than two of our boys with you”, Moreno noted as a cautionary advice. He was a veteran pirate, a survivor of many raids and duels, and his experience was an invaluable asset for the younger pirate captain.

Fernando considered the first mate’s suggestion and went over his mental roster of the raiders embarked on the _Frenzied Buzzard_. Moreno had to stay aboard the _Frenzied Buzzard_ for the simple reason he was the only one that Fernando trusted to keep the rest of the crew in line during the Captain’s absence. Kid, the lookout, was still too young and inexperienced to bring along under the circumstances. Polin “Jackrabbit”, an elven mariner and part of the crew since Fernando began his career as a pirate, had plenty of experience when it came to sailing, but he was not much of a fighter. The Hercinian twins Orson and Scott would be a perfect pick with their imposing looks and swordsmen skills, except they tended to lose focus when visiting a brothel. There was also Lobo, a recent recruit that kept most of the crew at a distance due to the fact he was affected by lycanthropy. That peculiar “condition”, which Lobo claimed was acquired as the result of a visit to the Tellari Swamps, made him unsuitable to wander through the streets of Rialto on a full moon night.

“No, I’ll bring only Smelt and Weirdo,” Fernando finally decided, while putting on his gurn hide coat over the rest of his attire, consisting of knee-high boots, greenish trousers, a white cotton shirt and a leather jacket. A wide brimmed hat ornamented with an orange plume completed the pirate’s outfit. “They are some of the smartest among our crew and they know how to fight in tight quarters”, he explained, “and I trust they will be enough to cover my back if this turns out to be a trap after all. Also, if we do walk into an ambush, a small party will have a better chance to escape compared to a larger group.”

Before his recruitment, Smelt had been a fisherman living on the banks of Antiva’s largest river, not too far from the city of Seleny. An average-looking man under many aspects, Smelt joined the _Frenzied Buzzard_ ’s crew after impressing Fernando with his survival skills, keen sense of orientation and knife work at a time when he had been hired as a scout by the pirate captain. He was bestowed the “Smelt” nickname the very moment he set foot on the _Frenzied Buzzard_ , when another raider pointed out that the former fisherman smelled like the “smelt”, a freshwater fish common in the waters of Antiva’s rivers. Weirdo, the raider who had come up with Smelt’s nickname, was a native of the Free-marcher city of Wycome. He never went unnoticed due to his facial tattoos and earrings and was known for his bizarre ramblings about sea monsters and all sorts of mythical and less mythical creatures, which eventually led the crew to name him Weirdo.

Once ready, Fernando led Moreno out of his cabin and joined Smelt and Weirdo as they were boarded the _Frenzied Buzzard_ ’s longboat. Upon Fernando’s signal, the raider assigned to operating the winch aboard the _Frenzied Buzzard_ began to lower the longboat into the sea. As soon as the small boat touched the water, Smelt and Weirdo began rowing, quickly taking their captain to the not too far shore. According to Fernando’s plan, the three pirates would enter Rialto and mingle with the crowds celebrating Satinalia, making their way to the brothel at the Bridge of the Tits without drawing attention.

True to the tradition of Satinalia, in addition to their usual raiders’ attire Smelt and Weirdo wore a simple stark white mask to conceal their faces. As for Fernando, the pirate captain had elected to wear a _bauta_ 2, a mask that was traditionally worn during the celebrations by the men of Rialto. Easily recognizable for its over-prominent nose, thick supraorbital ridge and beak-like chin, the _bauta_ was designed to comfortably cover the entire face of its wearer while at the same time ensuring one could talk, eat and drink without having to remove the mask. Antivan masks were not crafted to be as fancy as the masks worn by nobles in Orlais, but they were common fashion in Rialto during Satinalia when many men wore a _bauta_ , regardless of their social status.

As Fernando and his raiders entered the city, it was perfectly clear that the celebrations were fully underway. Large crowds loitered in the streets wearing their masks, while dozens of drunken men meandered aimlessly around and a constant stream of people roamed the city crossing its many bridges. The guards posted on the streets were not performing their duty attentively and rather looked to be ready to join the general fun at any moment.

The brothel at the Bridge of the Tits was just as crowded as the streets of Rialto. Pushing the door of the establishment open, Fernando briefly wondered if any of the workers would be available to offer their services given that the place was packed full with patrons apparently waiting for one of the workers to become available.

There was a minstrel playing a fast-paced song on his lute and a mostly naked female dwarven prostitute was dancing on a table, the patrons in the brothel’s main room watching the dwarf’s show, alternating between rhythmically clapping their hands to accompany her dance and drinking from their cups. No doubt the proprietor of the brothel had hired the minstrel and come up with the idea of having the dwarven woman dance as a way to keep the customers occupied while the remaining brothel’s workers were busy providing their services to other customers.

Fernando scanned the main room looking for Isabela. He spotted the woman sitting cross-legged at a table in a poorly illuminated corner of the room, her back to the wall, clapping her hands in unison with the other patrons as she enjoyed the dwarven woman’s performance.

The Queen of the Eastern Seas was wearing a bluish coat embellished with golden embroidery over a pair of leather trousers and a white blouse. She donned mid-calf boots and a half-mask painted with a checkered pattern concealed her eyes, nose, and upper cheeks. A red tinted hat, truly befitting of the admiral of a pirate fleet, was resting on her head.

Fernando approached the woman’s table, his facial features still hidden by the _bauta_ , and quietly signalled his companions to take up positions to cover his back. He was still a couple of paces away from Isabela when the woman welcomed him, apparently having no trouble recognizing Fernando despite his mask.

“Look, the elusive Quicksilver deigns to join this humble associate of the Armada in such a charming establishment”, she chirped in the half-mocking tone that Fernando remembered so well.

“Hey Izzy, lovely of you to invite me here for Satinalia”, Fernando replied, directing a half bow at the dark-skinned woman and then adding, “What do you say that we let Smelt and Weirdo have a drink with your own boys over there?”

He had picked out the two men, an elf and a human, standing not too far away from Isabela’s table, watching the dwarven prostitute dance, but still keeping an eye on their captain. Fernando didn’t know them to be part of Isabela’s crew, but he had seen enough raiders to recognize them as such.

“Oh, I remember those two freshwater sailors! I’m happy you managed to keep your crew with you”, Isabela said looking towards Smelt and Weirdo, a refuel smile making a brief appearance on her features. “And since we are among friends, there is no reason why the boys from our crews shouldn’t share a drink while we have a quiet chat and reminisce the old days.”

With a nod, the two captains gestured to their respective crew members to stand down, Smelt and Weirdo joining Isabela’s men as they went together to order some drinks. Fernando pulled up a chair to sit at the table with Isabela, feeling inwardly relieved by the woman’s tone when she had expressed her pleasure that Fernando had managed to retain in his service Smelt and Weirdo. His recollection of Isabela was of a cold-hearted opportunist who didn’t care what happened to the people around her. Was that a mere façade while she actually cared about people? Or did the almost entire loss of her original crew actually change Isabela, making her realize how much a loyal crew could mean for the captain of a raider ship in the Armada?

In the background, the patrons started singing a tavern song on the notes of the minstrel’s lute, while the dwarf removed another piece of her already scant clothing and threw it to the crowd. Seeing the garment flow across the room seemed to renew the interest of the audience for her performance. Turning his full attention to the meeting with Isabela, Fernando dove straight to the point, dumping on Isabela the question that had been nagging him ever since finding the woman’s message pinned on Little Llomerryn’s board. “I never expected you would contact me again given our past history together, so what has changed?”

Isabela un-crossed her legs, shifting in the chair to make herself comfortable while giving her interlocutor a playful look. “Haven’t changed much Fernando, have you? You keep coming to the point too quickly. But that’s fine with me today, seeing that this time around what I want from you doesn’t involve being in bed together.” Careful not to alarm Fernando with a sudden gesture, she slowly removed from a pocket inside her coat a sheet of paper, unfolding it to show Fernando an intricate drawing on one of the sheet’s sides.

“Looks kinda familiar to me…” was Fernando’s reaction when he examined the drawing.

“You bet it’s familiar, you thieving scoundrel”, Isabela mocked with a hint of irritation creeping in her voice. “It’s the dwarven locket you took from me that night we spent in Hercinia!”

Fernando was reluctant to admit it, but he had immediately recognized the item depicted on Isabela’s drawing. In fact, he remembered with crystal clarity the events of that fateful night the woman was referring to.

The two pirate captains had docked their ships in Hercinia’s port, with the intention to stop there until the season changed and conditions on the sea became once again favourable for sailing. They also planned to spend some time together, which was a not so subtle way to say they meant to know each other better in bed. It was during the very first night together that Fernando noticed the small locket hanging on a chain that Isabela used to wear as a necklace. The locket was made of shiny silverite with runes of dwarven design etched all over its surface. On its front was the tiniest keyhole Fernando had ever seen and on the back a hollowed geometric shape was further evidence of the jewel’s dwarven origins.

Fernando had greedily calculated that the locket would gain him a decent amount of gold if sold to a suitable collector. More than that, stealing the jewel from Isabela was a perfect chance to improve his standing among the Raiders of the Waking Sea. A few years earlier, when Fernando had set his mind on becoming a pirate, his present first mate Moreno told him that one quick way to earn the respect of other raiders was to rely either on brains or guts, if not both, to outdo a more famous raider in his or her own area of expertise, be that dueling, stealing or cheating (or in the case of Isabela all three).

That night Fernando deftly lifted the locket off Isabela’s neck as they huddled up in bed and silently ran off into the night with his prize. Leaving his former associate behind, Fernando promptly sailed away from Hercinia to winter in Estwatch, bragging with other captains of the Armada about how he had cheated Isabela and stolen the locket from her, while discreetly looking for someone willing to pay him a small fortune in gold to buy the jewel.

“Oh, yeah… I said it looks familiar”, Fernando finally admitted, trying not to sound embarrassed upon realizing that the subject of their meeting seemed to have something to do with his betrayal years earlier.

Isabela seemed to pick up on her interlocutor’s discomfort when she replied. “Look, I’m not here to dig up that matter. I’ve been mad at you for a while, but that’s no longer an issue, because I’ve got a more important business proposal for you, if you care to listen.”

Fernando gave her a go-ahead gesture and listened intently as Isabela recalled that, during the events following the first appearance of the Breach and its final sealing by the Inquisitor, she had been busy as one of the Inquisition’s field agents on a number of raids. During one such raid, she had stumbled on a collection of dwarven relics recovered from a site on the Storm Coast. Among those relics, Isabela had noticed a case holding a few scrolls, one of them holding a number of sheets, including the one she had just shown to Fernando. Another of the sheets retrieved by the Rivaini woman, as Fernando could now see for himself, was a depiction of the key that should open the locket.

Isabela explained that she had snatched the drawings for herself and then showed them to one of her contacts, a dwarf by the name of Varric Tethras. Varric, who happened to be part of the Inquisitor’s inner circle, had shown the drawing to a friend of his, uncovering some interesting news about the jewel. According to Varric’s friend, lockets such as the one in the drawing were made by dwarven smiths ages ago, before the thaigs in the Deep Roads were lost to the Darkspawn horde, and were used by the nobles to hide their secrets. In fact, those jewels were crafted in such a way that they could not be opened by any means save by using the small key which came with each locket.

Isabela mentioned how she had attempted several times to pry open the locket while the jewel had been in her possession and Fernando admitted making at least one attempt at opening the locket at his own end. Neither of the pirate captains had any luck, regardless of their skills when it came to picking locks, attesting to the dwarven smiths’ skills.

“Since the drawings bore the distinctive mark of a very specific dwarven caste, Varric’s friend was able to retrieve a small key that should allow me to see what’s inside that gimmick”, Isabela added as a conclusion to her story.

Fernando put on a sly grin, “So, you didn’t invite me here to pick up where we left that night in your bed. It’s just the locket you are after.”

“Ha! Your performance was pretty much lackluster that night. I hope you aren’t seriously expecting my business offer will include sharing again a bed with you?” She made no effort to hide the mockery from her words.

“Well, I was doing my best to take the locket off your neck without you noticing, so you will excuse me if I couldn’t devolve all of my attentions to you”, the pirate blustered in his defence upon hearing Isabela making fun of his lover’s skills. Then, steering the conversation back on track, he asked “Anyway, if you want that locket I guess it is because you expect to make a good profit out of whatever secret it is hiding, eh?”

There was a slight hesitation as Isabela began framing her answer and that was enough for Fernando to take a lead in the negotiation. “I want half of whatever you… _we_ recover thanks to the secret hidden inside the locket.”

Due to the small size of the jewel, it was hard for Fernando to believe its contents were of any value by themselves. If the original dwarven owner had stashed his or her secrets inside such a small item, odds were that those secrets could lead to something valuable, possibly a dwarven treasure trove of some kind. Ancient dwarven treasures were valuable enough they could substantially change the life of a man. Everyone visiting Kirkwall before the outset of the Mage-Templar War had heard the tale of how a humble Fereldan refugee, who would later became the famed Champion of Kirkwall, retrieved one such treasure during an expedition into the Deep Roads and became one of the wealthiest people in the city.

The pirate woman made a face on hearing Fernando’s proposal. She began to open her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the loud sound of a gong echoing throughout the brothel. Because of the large number of visitors stopping at the brothel to take advantage of its services, the proprietor had arranged for the brothel workers to entertain the patrons in shifts. The sound of the gong was used to signal the end of the current shift and the din in the room grew louder as those patrons waiting for their own turn to enjoy the pleasures of the establishment raised from their chairs cheering. They all looked expectantly at the upper floor, some of them unsteady due to too much drinking, eager to see the brothel workers inviting them upstairs.

In the general confusion, a group of five men wearing identical colorful attires, a cocked hat and a full-face mask marched to the table where Isabela and Fernando had been talking for the past few minutes. The one apparently leading the group stopped right next to the two pirate captains’ table and spoke in a menacing tone.

“You two. Get up quietly and follow us”, he ordered.

Despite the man’s tone and the fact he let one hand hover threateningly on the handle of a large knife tucked in the waistband of his trousers, neither Fernando nor Isabela betrayed any concern. The two pirates began to slowly rise from their sits, Isabela flashing a charming smile at the five men while casually adjusting the mask on her face. They hadn’t taken a single step forward when a throwing knife crossed the stretch of space separating the quintet of colorfully-clad thugs from the spot where Smelt, Weirdo and Isabela’s two crew members were standing. The knife lodged in the thug-leader’s neck, accompanied by a wet sound and a spurt of arterial blood.

The man dropped to the floor emitting one final gurgling noise, completely unnoticed by the still cheering patrons. That was all the time Isabela and Fernando needed to draw their blades, causing the four surviving enemies to instinctively retreat and draw their own weapons in preparation for the upcoming fight.

Isabela jumped forward, her twin blades held point down, and ripped into the rightmost of the adversaries, literally carving a path towards Smelt, Weirdo and her own crew members. Fernando followed her, using his saber to parry the enemies’ strikes and pushing further back the three men still on their feet. With the corner of his eye, he noticed his men and Isabela’s crew closing ranks, eager to join their captains in the fight. Two-to-one odds were entirely in their favor and Fernando expected the enemy would attempt to disengage as soon as possible. However, with three shrill whistles, one of the enemies called for reinforcements and a second group of the colorful clad men started pouring into the brothel.

“So much for favorable odds”, Fernando muttered at the sight of the dozen more thugs heading their way.

Right next to him, Isabela attacked one of the enemies with a quick lunge to his ribs, at the same time resuming their earlier conversation from the point it was interrupted. “I’m offering you 25 sovereigns for the locket.”

“No way, locket’s yours for half of…”, he paused to land a hard kick to the ribs at the man Isabela had just wounded, “… whatever we recover”, he finished, noting with a practiced eye that his kick had broken several of the attacker’s ribs, effectively putting him out of the fight.

If the Rivaini woman was annoyed by Fernando’s insistence for a fifty-fifty deal, she was doing a great job at hiding her feelings when she calmly delivered her next offer. “All right, I’ll double that to 50 sovereigns”, she offered without even pausing a second as she kept swinging her daggers in a shifting pattern meant to confuse her opponents.

There was no denying Isabela’s offer was considerably good and in other circumstances Fernando would have readily accepted the deal. But the mere fact that Isabela was willing to pay that much had piqued Fernando’s interest. Whatever secret was hidden in the locket could lead to an even more lucrative profit and the pirate was not ready to settle for 50 sovereigns.

“Nope. As I said, it’s half of the finding or the locket stays wherever it is.”

In the meantime, the sight and the sound of the fight had finally drawn the attention of those patrons who had been closer to Fernando and Isabela’s table. Like a herd of druffalo fleeing at the sight of a wolf pack, the patrons were scared into motion by the sight of the swinging blades and the bloodshed, moving heedlessly to get out of the way before they were accidentally caught in the melee. On the upper floor, the brothel’s workers and the patrons of the recently ended shift rushed back into the rooms they had just vacated, intent to place a thick door between themselves and the fight. The frightened patrons on the main floor were pushing to reach the stairs to the upper floor in their frantic search for an escape, jostling all those patrons who were still unaware of the fighting, such that it was only a matter of seconds before a brawl finally ignited.

“What about one fifth of what we find?” Isabela asked, still bargaining for the locket.

“Not bad, but I want half!”

Bolstered by their reinforcements, the assailants were advancing, attempting to corner Fernando, Isabela and their raiders. Somewhere to their right, the brothel’s proprietor was screaming abuse and launching invectives at everyone, looking with mounting horror at the beginnings of the brawl that would devastate her establishment and likely force her to spend the money earned over the first three days of Satinalia to cover the damages. Unfazed by the confusion and general screaming, part of the colorful clad enemies began to flank Fernando, shoving aside both people and furniture, causing one of the scattered benches to smash into the table where the dancing dwarven prostitute was still standing amidst the chaos. The collision made the dwarf wobble perilously and Fernando scooped her up one-armed, just as she began falling off the table, while retreating towards the bar counter. The dwarf threw her arms around Fernando’s neck, clinging to the raider and giving him the chance to notice how pretty she was and how soft she felt pressed against him. He also noticed that carrying the woman seriously hampered his movements and he could not fight properly.

The elven raider from Isabela’s crew threw his remaining knives at the onrushing enemy and jumped over the counter. Smelt and Weirdo were already there, checking the adjoining back room accessible from a door right behind the counter. Fernando was retreating as fast as possible, still carrying the dwarven prostitute. He circled around the counter, entered the back room and gently settled down the dwarf. Isabela slammed shut the door and her men used a large table to block access to the back room, letting the foodstuff arranged on the table to fall unceremoniously to the ground.

Outside, their enemies were pounding against the door to gain access. Fernando joined Isabela and her men pushing against their makeshift barricade to keep everyone outside, leaving to Smelt and Weirdo the task of exploring the next room. He mentally crossed his fingers that there was a rear exit they could use to make good their escape, otherwise they would soon be deep in seagull shit.

“Sod this, one third of what we recover”, Isabela shouted to be heard over the noise, her expression finally showing an annoyance that could be equally ascribed to the ongoing bargaining or to the unexpected attack.

“Sounds good to me. A third of everything we recover thanks to the locket”, Fernando finally conceded. “And all extra expenses for the equipment are on you. Oh, and I’ll want this written on paper and signed.”

Isabela snorted and rolled her eyes, “Sure. Assuming I still have my hands when we leave this place and I’m not bled out, I’ll sign that piece of paper with my own blood.”

Another blow rocked the door, splintering the wood it was made of. Someone, Fernando was not sure exactly who, shouted. “Those guys want our hides so bad!”

At the same moment, Weirdo came back, his expression bleak, shattering Fernando’s hopes. “Captain! It’s a dead end… No way to get out of the brothel back there!”

Fernando had the option of opening the door they were so desperately keeping barred and rush out, fighting to reach the brothel’s main door. The odds were in favour of them getting killed before reaching that door, but an improvised sortie seemed a better option than holding out inside the back rooms with their backs to the wall. Unexpectedly, the dwarven prostitute had a third option to suggest and she tapped Fernando’s right arm to gather the raider’s attention.

“ _Sior_ 3, there is a hidden trapdoor in the farthest room that we can use to escape!”

So pretty, sexy and we might also owe her our lives Fernando thought, ordering Weirdo to find and open the trapdoor on the double. There was no telling how long they could keep the enemies outside.

The dwarf, a look of concern on her face, asked “Will you bring me along? I don’t want to stay here when those men get inside.”

Fernando had never meant to leave the dwarf behind, there was no telling what the colourful clad men might do to her when they broke into the back room and didn’t find their prey, but Isabela beat him to answering.

“Sure, you can tag along as much as you like, sweet thing!” the Rivaini woman replied flashing a smile and a big wink at the prostitute who exhaled a sigh of relief.

From behind the door, Fernando heard someone call for an axe amidst the clamor of the brawl. There was a high chance that the din from the brothel had alerted the city guard and in that case it would not take much for the guards to storm the place. However, the door Fernando and the others were defending could not take much more hits. There was no time to wait for the guards’ assistance and he really hoped they could leave the brothel through the trapdoor. Besides, Fernando reasoned that having the Rialto city guard save his ass would do no good to his raider’s reputation.

The moment he heard his men call that the trapdoor was open, Fernando instructed Isabela to leave with the dwarven woman. “Once the two of you and my boys have gone through the trapdoor, give us a shout and we’ll leave too.”

For once Isabela did not have any funny remark to add and she quickly followed the dwarf to the trapdoor. It took only a few seconds until she shouted to warn that everyone had gone through the hidden exit. Fernando and Isabela’s men did not lose a second and rushed to the trapdoor themselves. The square black opening marking the location of the trapdoor looked inviting under the circumstances and Fernando quickly followed the others through, closing the trapdoor behind him.

The fugitives found themselves in a small space below the brothel’s main floor. It was dark and dank, but it took few paces to reach a handful of steps and a door opening on a back alley, outside of the brothel. Fernando idly noticed that the door was carefully concealed and hard to spot from outside. He assumed that the trapdoor passage was in all likelihood an escape route conceived for those patrons of the brothels who had to leave the establishment unnoticed.

Fernando and Isabela’s crew joined the rest of the group and together they followed the dwarf prostitute, who guided them through a maze of little streets and away from the brothel at the Bridge of the Tits. Before the building was entirely out of sight, Fernando had taken a quick look behind and thought he could see the silhouette of a tall man covered in a cloak amidst a bunch of the same colourful-clad men who had attacked the brothel. He had no time to take in more details as he followed the rest of the group behind a corner.

After a few minutes of wandering without apparent destination, the dwarven prostitute finally stopped next to a door. “This is where I live”, she said. “I’m going to be perfectly safe from now on, but you should hasten yourselves and get back to wherever you live in case those people or the city guard should scour the suburbs looking for you.”

Fernando noticed that the dwarf was wearing Isabela’s coat and watched her remove the garment and return it to its original owner. The Rivaini woman had probably given the coat to the mostly naked dwarf during their escape. With a warm hug to both Fernando and Isabela the prostitute took her leave from the two pirate captains.

The two groups of raiders made their way out of the city on their own, taking advantage of Fernando’s knowledge of Rialto’s layout to retrace their steps back to a spot where each group could get back to their ship. Before separating, Isabela agreed to meet with Fernando to hash out the details of their agreement aboard the _Frenzied Buzzard_ , as soon as she brought her own ship to the cove where Fernando’s vessel was currently at anchor.

* * * *

### Notes to Act 1, chapter 1

Note 1: In fifteenth century Venice prostitutes were encouraged to stand topless at the windows overlooking a bridge in one of the “red light districts” of the city in order to entice men. The bridge became known as The “bridge of the tits” and still exists in modern day Venice. Given that according to the Dragon Age lore Antiva is a fictionalized version of a medieval Italian city-state like Venice, I took the chance to have a “bridge of the tits” in Rialto.

Note 2: The bauta mask is traditionally worn by men for the Carnival of Venice.

Note 3: “Sior” is a common form of address for “sir” still used in present day Venice and the Veneto region.


End file.
